We usually call it Maximum Flash Sync Speed because of our concern when using flash, but it's not about the flash — it’s instead a limitation of the focal plane shutter, and actually is a Maximum Shutter Sync Speed when trying to sync with the flash. The flash must wait to be triggered until the shutter is fully open to pass it (Sync meaning the flash triggers when the shutter is fully open). The shutter motion takes a little time to be fully open, so the flash has to wait until the far edge of the frame becomes open. Another problem is that for fast shutter speeds, the opening edge of the focal plane shutter starts closing before the far side is fully open. That “early start” of closing means the shutter is never fully open, which causes an unexposed black band in the picture (photos below), which is a limit on the fastest shutter speed that can sync with flash. The faster that the shutter design can fully open, the faster the maximum sync speed possible (before it starts closing). This description is continued below, and Wikipedia has some nice illustrations of the action of these two curtains.

Almost all of the DSLR cameras now have focal plane shutters covering the film or sensor plane like a curtain. The focal plane (FP) shutter is in the camera body instead of in each lens. Focal plane shutters have been used in the better 35 mm film cameras since the first Leica in 1925 (and focal plane shutters are even older than that), because they provide superior timing of fast shutters (and not being in the lens greatly simplify the lens mechanisms). The really big deal about focal plane shutters is their precise accuracy. They use two curtains across the sensor, called first or front curtain, and the second or rear curtain. The first curtain opens and then the second curtain closes. The delay between two the two curtain start times is the open shutter duration. The two curtains use the same drive motor, same gears, same curtain speed, for every shutter speed, be it 30 seconds or 1/8000 second. And the two curtains travel across the sensor in the same direction (first one opening, second one closing), ensuring the same exposure at both ends of the sensor. One simple precise mechanism, with one mode and one curtain speed. One curtain opens the shutter, and the second curtain follows to close it. And today, the shutter speed is controlled by a quartz crystal clock. No complicated speed switching or gearing.

The focal plane shutter exposure duration is determined by the delay between the two curtains starting. Which today, the timing is controlled by a quartz crystal clock (instead of a complex mechanical assembly using springs and gears), providing very fast and accurate 1/8000 second speed, and also a very slow 30 second speed (both extremes are very difficult for a coiled spring mechanism — those older mechanical shutters only could be used between about one second and maybe 1/1000 of a second, or more typically 1/500 second). This focal plane system is great for interchangeable lenses, because it only needs one good shutter in the body, instead of a shutter in every lens. And this is a better and more accurate shutter, but focal plane shutters do have the limitation of maximum shutter sync speed with flash.

The duration of electronic flash is extremely brief, but the shutter must be fully open first, so that all areas of the frame are exposed simultaneously. At focal plane shutter speeds faster than maximum sync speed, the shutter is not fully open, and we see a black unexposed band at the top or bottom of our flash pictures (because focal plane shutters are vertical travel today). If you rotate your camera to portrait orientation, you will see this dark band down the one long side. If the camera has communication with the flash to know it is present, the camera likely will not allow a shutter speed faster than maximum sync speed.

Beginners becoming aware of this sync limitation are often unhappy that they cannot use a really fast shutter speed with flash. But even if they could, a faster shutter speed like 1/1000 second would truncate the maximum power level flash duration which lasts longer, so closing while still bright, terminating the exposure, resulting in much less exposure. Which might still might be usable in some situations, but it would make automatic exposure calculation about impossible (because the flash power could not represent the flash exposure). The Nikon D1 camera did have a fast shutter with 1/500 second sync in 1999, but this feature was abandoned in future models.

So flash sync speed is an issue, often limited to around 1/200 second shutter speed in many DSLR cameras which use the better focal plane shutters. We show examples of that issue here.

The Nikon D300 and D8xx (and the D7xxx family too) use faster shutters with higher life expectancies, and these better grade shutters offer Maximum Sync Speed at 1/320 second, shown here. Their specs say 1/250 second, but they work well at 1/320 second. There is a warning in the manual about faster than 1/250 sec, which I interpret to mean that 1/320 might cut off a little of a long flash duration, which could apply to some studio flash, or to a speedlight if using its slower full power level.

All images are always inverted in the camera, the lens projects images upside down on the sensor, so the actual travel is the opposite direction (and note that the focal plane shutters on these two camera models are moving in different arbitrary directions). The illuminated area is the traveling open slit width, which is fully open over full frame only up to maximum sync speed. At faster shutter speeds, the rear curtain begins closing sooner to make the open slit be more narrow. The speedlight flash is fast enough to stop the moving slit. These pictures simply show that open slit. The Nikon D300 and D800 camera shutters move in opposite directions, up or down (and the direction of movement appears inverted in the image file).

Many camera shutters only sync flash at up to about 1/200 second. Any time you see a problem like this, just reduce your shutter speed, so that it does not exceed Maximum Flash Sync Speed (in your camera's specs for Flash Sync Speed, also called X sync). This is what Maximum Flash Sync Speed is, it is a shutter situation, about when that shutter is fully open. Maximum Flash Sync Speed is NOT a property of the electronic flash. Instead it is simply the fastest focal plane shutter speed that the front curtain is fully open, and the rear curtain has not started to close (slit is open wide enough to provide a full open frame for the flash). But sometimes radio triggers add a delay which causes the same maximum flash sync problems (to diagnose, try flash with and without the radio trigger. Also it might just be time for new batteries in the radio trigger).

The black band you see above may not always be fully black, you might see some detail in it if there is enough ambient to show it, but the band area will block the flash. The darker band may not always even be noticeable in bright sun, the bright ambient will illuminate that area pretty well. FWIW, if this were a full frame camera shooting into a cropped format, that might crop a narrow dark band off, so it might get away with a slightly faster shutter speed than if shooting full frame. The two shutters appear about the same speed here, but the full frame shutter has to travel 1.5x greater distance than the cropped APS-C shutter.

Both cameras above used the same 24-70 mm lens at the same 70 mm focal length. So yes, this example also shows the difference in the cropped and full frame view with the same lens. The cropped view appears as a telephoto illusion (frame cropped smaller by smaller sensor, but then also necessarily enlarged more to view at the same size again), and the full frame view is more wide angle (not cropped).

These samples were a Nikon SB-800 speedlight flash (fast flash - 1/17800 second at 1/32 power. If the shutter speed exceeded the Maximum Sync Speed, then the flash speed would freeze the shutter travel too, causing the black band). The flash exposure is not affected by shutter speed, where we are able to see it. However, this is regular speedlight flash mode, and is NOT Auto FP flash mode (next page). This flash was not in the hot shoe, and was instead triggered with a PC cord, so that the camera was unaware any flash was present, which would otherwise refuse to trigger the flash if Maximum Flash Sync Speed was exceeded.

What is a Focal Plane shutter?

There is some repetition from here on, hoping it will help to get the idea across.

First, the simplest concept of a shutter is a large solid sheet that covers the sensor. It is opened by pulling it back towards say the left side of the frame to expose the sensor. Then it is closed again by returning it back to the right to cover the frame again. But for a fast exposure time, the time to open and close is a significant part of the total exposure. Specifically the right side of the frame is exposed more than the left side (opened first and closed last). The shutters that are actually mounted in lenses (called leaf shutters) are more complex, being several interleaving blades designed to all open and close more quickly, but still not in zero time.

A focal plane shutter is in the camera body, being two moving shutter curtains stacked in front of the sensor (like two roller window blinds). One curtain opens to expose the sensor to light from lens, and after a timed duration, the second curtain follows in the same direction, closing to cover it (left side opened first, and then closed first). This ensures the same exposure on all parts of the sensor. The same mechanism going the same speed operates both curtains. That makes the exposure duration (and effective shutter speed) simply be the delay between the two curtain start times (electronically timed today).

Flash is faster than the shutter, and it can simply occur anywhere within this fully open duration, but normal flash mode is synced with the front curtain becoming open. We do also have a later choice of Rear Curtain Sync which delays the flash until just before the second shutter starts to close, used to show for the blur trails with slow shutter speed. Regular front curtain sync would show the blur trails appearing after the flash as apparently leading the motion. Rear curtain sync shows the blur trails more naturally following the motion.

But to implement even faster shutter speeds, the second curtain starts closing before the first is fully open, tracking together to create a narrow slit between the two curtains, the open slit moving across the frame (actually down the frame today, the shorter travel is faster). This narrow slit reduces the exposure under it (of time duration equal to the difference between the two curtains start times), to be a faster shutter speed, which can easily be very fast, but a narrow slit cannot expose the full frame area from a fast flash of light. That problem is due to shutter speed exceeding the Maximum Flash Sync Speed.

A few descriptions of focal plane shutters are available. The Wikipedia link has an interesting section on history and improvements.

A very interesting photograph (a classic) using a focal plane shutter is this 1912 picture by Jacques Henri Lartigue. This is NOT a flash picture, there are no dark bands, the daylight ambient was continuous, constantly present during the exposure. The shutter slit's travel motion can cause distortion of a moving subject... different parts of the frame are exposed by a moving narrow slit at slightly different times, when things may have moved as the slit is moving too.

In this picture, the shutter slit was moving up in the picture (down in the camera, picture is inverted). The spectators and roadside poles are leaning left because this 4x5 inch camera was being panned right, following the race car. The spectator's feet were exposed earlier and their heads later (moving left in the frame as the camera panned by to the right), at slightly different times, due to the slit moving up as the camera panned right. But the car was going even faster yet, moving further right, ahead of the shutter in the frame, so it leans the other way. It was a large camera and shutters were slower in 1912, so motion may be exaggerated, but his classic picture is responsible for us imagining speeding wheels as being slanted ovals, at least in cartoon drawings. The narrow open slit can provide a very short (fast) exposure, but it takes much longer for this slit to travel across the large frame. Shutters are much faster today, but the fastest motion can still be an issue. See the HSS flash picture of the grinding disk on next page.

Electronic shutters (like in compact cameras, simply timed by the CCD sensor chip turning on or off) are not limited about sync speed. Their flash can work at any speed, however most do still specify something like about 1/500 second maximum (fast cuts off the flash exposure of the tiny flash too). Iris shutters (in lenses of larger cameras) can sync flash at 1/500 second, or really any faster speed too, however if really fast, their opening and closing speeds (opening from the center) can expose the center area more than the corners.

Advantage of focal plane shutters: The same remarkable precision mechanism moves both curtains, creating and moving a virtual narrow slit of opening across the frame at a fixed speed, to provide precise fast exposures under that slit. There are really good reasons better cameras provide the focal plane shutter.

• Various variable gears and springs to select and individually time every shutter speed are no longer necessary or used. Regardless of shutter speed, the geared motor travel speed of the two curtains is always at one fixed speed from one motor, which can be made very accurate and constant. This motor speed does not actually control the exposure time, which is the same for every shutter speed.
• The shutter speed value is just the timing between starting the two curtains, which in modern cameras with processors, is done with a crystal clock timer, very precise. Very accurate for both 1/8000 second speed, and for 30 second speed, it's all easy and accurate for focal plane shutters.
• The exposure is very evenly equal at all points in the frame (not true of Iris shutters in lenses).

Downsides of focal plane shutters

• The two curtains means however, at faster shutter speeds, that the exposures of different parts of the frame under this moving slit does occur at slightly different times (as the open slit moves across).
• The downside for flash is that at these faster shutter speeds (faster than Maximum Sync Speed), the shutter opening (of light to the sensor) is only under this narrow slit. An instantaneous flash then only illuminates what is under that narrow slit at that instant, and the rest of the frame is not exposed to the flash. Therefore we can only use flash at shutter speeds slow enough that the entire frame is open at the same time (called Maximum Sync Speed), to let the fast flash expose the full frame area. This is very little issue indoors where we use flash, because the ambient there is dim and does not cause any blur (the speedlight is very fast). It can be a problem for flash in bright ambient like sunlight, since the camera with a focal plane shutter using flash normally can not let us set shutter speeds faster than maximum sync speed.

How Fast is Maximum Flash Sync Speed?

The flash is often relatively nearly instantaneous, but it has to be synced to trigger when the shutter is fully open. For focal plane shutters, the fastest shutter speed at which the full frame is all fully open at any one instant (to allow instantaneous flash to fully cover the entire frame), is called the Maximum Sync Speed. The Nikon spec charts in rear of camera manuals call it Maximum Flash Sync Speed, and I often tend to say Maximum Shutter Sync Speed (all the same thing, sync of the flash to the fully open shutter). Flash sync is not possible if the focal plane shutter speed is faster than this limit (because some of the frame would be covered by the closing second rear shutter, and so unexposed, causing a dark band in picture). Some cameras use leaf shutters in each lens, or electronic shutters in some camera sensor chips, and these can sync faster than focal plane shutters (because there is always a fully open instant).

The Maximum Sync Speed for a focal plane shutter relates to how fast the curtain can move across the frame, to the Fully Open position. The flash has to wait for the fully open position, which determines Maximum Sync Speed, because if faster, the second rear curtain has already began to close.

In the 1960s, the focal plane shutter maximum sync speed was 1/60 second. Maybe 1/80 second in the 1980s. Today, shutters are faster, and 1/200 second (5 ms) is common today. A few models can do 1/250 second (4 ms) or 1/320 second (3.125 ms). Full frame cameras must travel half again farther than the APC-C sensors, but the vertical shutter travel today covers 1/3 less distance than horizontal. Full frame covering 24 mm in 3.125 ms travels 7.7 meters/second. Cropped APC-S covering 16 mm in 5 ms travels 3.2 meters/second. There is no Minimum shutter speed — any slower shutter speed can always be used with flash. However most camera automatons arbitrarily force about 1/60 second Minimum Shutter Speed With Flash in camera A or P or Auto modes (E2 menu on some Nikon models). This is not about sync or exposure, it is simply a concern about hand holding slow shutter speeds. Slow Sync or Rear Curtain Sync modes will bypass that limit to allow any slow shutter speed actually metered.)

The Nikon specs clearly say Maximum Sync is still 1/250 second on their faster shutters, but some of these models provide a mode to allow 1/320 second sync, warning it might suffer reduced range of the flash. My guess is this is not about sync, but means the fast shutter could cut off slow flashes, like some large studio flash at low power, or speedlights at maximum power (but any speedlight power level lower than maximum should not be any issue). The speedlight T.1 flash duration at maximum will about 3x longer than T.5 (typically around 1/300 second). Maximum sync speed is normally not a speed problem (at normal ISO and apertures, when the ambient is not contributing much), because the flash is faster, so maximum sync speed is perfectly fine. The speed concern is about daylight level bright ambient, unable to use faster shutter speed.

Even in camera Manual mode, the camera will not allow you to choose these fast shutter speeds if it knows the flash is present (if flash is on the hot shoe for communication). But a PC sync cord will not know any flash is present, and this example above used a PC sync cord (flash not in hot shoe), to prevent communication, to fool the camera into allowing any shutter speed. There is no reason to do that, other than to show the problem here. An APS-C sensor crop exposed on a full frame camera may crop off a small dark band, so it might get away with a slightly faster shutter speed than if shooting full frame.

Historically in the distant past, the only way to get around this sync problem with a faster shutter was to use a special flashbulb (named FP sync, for focal plane) that burns slower and longer to stay fully illuminated much longer, perhaps 1/30 second delay to peak, and then 1/30 second duration at half power points, for the full shutter travel time — more like continuous light for the longer shutter duration. HSS flash is the same similar solution today, a flash duration lasting as long as the shutter travel time (next page). This longer duration simulates continuous light, which has no sync requirement.

The Problem with Fill Flash in Sunlight

The shutter speed limit of Maximum Sync Speed is really no big deal for flash indoors. The flash is fast itself, so in dim ambient light (where we need flash), it matters less what shutter speed is, the flash is faster. The dim ambient is too dim to blur motion seen by a slow shutter, and indoors (if low ISO), we can open the aperture as wide as we wish without concern about overexposing the ambient. But this maximum sync speed becomes a much bigger problem when using fill flash in bright sun (because overwhelming bright sun cannot be ignored). The speedlight is extremely fast in dim light with no ambient to blur anything, but the bright sun is continuous, not fast.

The Sunny 16 Rule says at ISO 200, exposure in bright sunlight is 1/200 second at f/16. Bright sun does not vary, so this is the norm we expect. And we pretty much have to correctly expose the daylight scene. We cannot ignore the sun like we can ignore dim indoor illumination. Continuous light (like sunlight) has no shutter sync requirement, but when we add a flash for fill, now there is one. The topic of fill flash in sunlight is covered in Part 4.

With flash in sunlight, we cannot use faster equivalent exposures, like 1/400 second at f/11, or 1/800 at f/8 because the focal plane shutter's maximum sync speed is 1/200 or 1/250. That means, if using flash in bright sun at ISO 200, the camera exposure WILL NECESSARILY BE around 1/200 second at f/16 (Sunny 16, but cannot exceed sync speed). The f/16 requires a lot of flash power, but otherwise this works fine, unless you just craved to use f/2.8 out there. Camera P mode knows all about this, and has ability to set both shutter speed AND aperture, and so it is a good choice for fill flash in bright sun. But if you use camera A mode, and set f/4 out there without thinking, the camera will just fuss warning HI at you, until you set near f/16 so it can work in bright sun (at the limited sync speed).

Wishful thinking, but our dream is that if somehow we could increase shutter speed, we could open the aperture, for reduced depth of field, or to an equivalent exposure for daylight which lets the regular flash mode work at lower power level, without affecting either exposure. Or, a faster shutter speed could help the flash to "overpower" the sun, reducing the sun without affecting the flash — if we could, but we cannot (in these bright sun cases.). We are up against the maximum shutter sync speed wall. FWIW, using lower ISO, or using a Neutral Density filter, can allow a wider aperture in that case, but that's all it does (maximum shutter sync speed is still enforced). But these affect both the flash and the sun equally, so these do not change the balance between flash power and sun. We can only use more flash power to affect the balance, and then exposing the higher flash power might end up at f/32, which does decrease the sun that needs f/16, but we still need Maximum shutter speed sync. Flash in bright sun is a special case.

Ifs and Buts - Other Shutters, and Exceeding Maximum Shutter Sync Speed

Flash sync speed is really only an issue in bright sun. It is unimportant in dimmer light, where we need flash. So we might as well get used to Maximum Shutter Sync Speed, because it has always been this way, since the first Leica 35 mm camera in 1925 (focal plane shutter). The first Nikon F (1959) sync'd flash at 1/60 second. The situation is better today than it has ever been before.

One workaround in sunlight is to underexpose the sunlight ambient by a couple of stops, so the flash can stop the motion without the ambient blurring it again. Flash becomes main light instead of fill. Sports action likes this, it highlights the subject better anyway. The speedlight is faster than the shutter, and reducing the sun's exposure causes less blurring of action. And speedlights are the way High Speed Photography is done.

A couple of confusion factors which do not change the basics:

• Electronic CCD chip shutters

  There are mechanical focal plane shutters, and there are electronic shutters.

  If we had the electronic CCD chip shutter (no mechanical motion involved), then these can sync flash at the fastest shutter speed. The CCD sensor is simply electronically enabled and disabled, which is also used as a shutter, even like at 1/4000 second. However, the faster shutter speeds could be fast enough to truncate the longer flash duration, reducing effective light from the full power flash (but speedlights become even much faster than the shutter, at lower power levels, in more dim light so the ambient won't blur anything).

  • Cameras with CCD sensors necessarily must disable the CCD sensor chip after each picture, to transfer the charge out of the CCD chip (their way to access that image). This is how CCD works. It is easy to also use this feature as an inexpensive electronic shutter (some say electric shutter, same thing), instead of a more expensive mechanical shutter (which actually covers the sensor). These do use a lesser mechanical shutter at slow speeds (roughly 1/100 second or slower), which also protects the sensor from light when not supposed to be accumulating exposure, but which allows sun to hit the sensor using a 1/4000 second exposure for the longer 1/100 second, which can cause blooming. Almost all compact cameras use the electronic CCD for a shutter. These may be an advantage with respect to low cost and fast flash sync, but it is a disadvantage in other technical ways.
  • Many better cameras use a CMOS sensor today. Disabling the chip is not a feature of CMOS sensors (more complex chips, perhaps it takes too long to boot them up again?) These CMOS models provide the standard focal plane shutter. The Nikon 1.V2 camera has a CMOS sensor, and two shutters, one is an electronic shutter with only 1/60 second flash sync, and also a regular focal plane shutter offering 1/250 second flash sync. So, count your blessings. 😊
  • Better cameras have the better mechanical focal plane shutter. Some of these older ones had CCD sensor too (D40X, D60, D80, D3000 for example), but Nikon choose to provide the better mechanical focal plane shutter in them.
  • Normal operation of the CCD chip must electronically enable and disable the CCD sensor chip between shots anyway. CCD shifts the data out of the chip by shifting the pixel cells one to the next, to finally reach the edge of the chip. Exposure would be a no-no during that shifting, so the chip is disabled. But the time it is enabled can be timed, and used as a shutter. However, without a protective cover (mechanical shutter) also covering the chip, this additional light accumulation (while chip is disabled) can cause a flare called blooming. See this example comparing a D80 and D70. Both cameras use the same CCD sensor, but the D80 uses a focal plane shutter, and the D70 uses the CCD electronic shutter. The fast electronic shutter speed exposes the picture, but the flare (called blooming or bleed) is caused by the longer duration of the slower mechanical shutter, while the chip is not covered, while not protected from the sun. The better focal plane shutter is considered a very big plus, for several reasons, however the fastest sync speed with flash is not one of its features.

  The Nikon D40, D50, D70 cameras did use the CCD electronic shutter, but if these models recognize the flash is present, they still limit the maximum shutter sync speed to 1/500 second. However, with these electronic shutters, if you can break the communication to fool the camera so that it does not recognize a flash is present (for example, if you use a PC sync cord), then the camera firmware will not limit shutter speed at all. You can use any faster shutter second then (only on these models with this electronic shutter). The problem is not about syncing the electronic flash, the focal plane problem is about opening the shutter wide, to get the flash through it.

  Note that just because these CCD situations might sync the flash with a fast electronic shutter, it does not mean there is no effect on the flash. A fast shutter surely does truncate the longer full power flash duration and reduce the useful flash exposure. However, lower speedlight power levels are much faster than any shutter, not likely affected.

  It is difficult to define how to measure actual flash duration. Flash is a fast pulse which then decays relatively slowly, trailing off to zero, and it is hard to agree when it effectively finishes. When does the gradual trail-off stop being effective? (10%? 5%? 1%?) The standard method for published flash duration is called t.5, which measures the time that the flash is stronger than 50% of its peak intensity. This is an engineering convention, convenient for engineers, but is not a photographer's convention. Because 50% intensity is only one stop down, and is still rather bright, so photographically, this means the t.5 specification number is actually about three times faster than we realistically see in our pictures — the useful 10% limit of the flash (called t.1, measuring 90% of the power) is about 3 times longer than the conventional 50% spec number for duration. BUT the definition of this limit of usability is really difficult to specify. 10% is not much to a photographer, less than our smallest setting change of 1/3 stop, but 50% is a full stop.

  Camera speedlight units are a big exception, and are "different", being extremely fast at lower power levels (the name "speedlight"). Their 1/32 power level may have an actual duration of 1/20,000 second, because speedlight reduce power by truncating the flash duration. This curve of the truncated pulse has steep sides going up and down, and so t.5 really hardly applies, EXCEPT when at their full power level when t.5 and t.1 are probably the same (just saying, the truncated lower power speed specs are more unequivocally precise regarding what actually happens). But otherwise, speaking of the speedlight full power level (and studio lights), then in general, a t.1 time is more meaningful for photographers, which duration is mathematically about three times slower than the t.5 stated by the spec, and so the full power duration may approach normal maximum shutter sync speeds closer than we may realize. If that may be not be clear, please see the actual description at High Speed Flash.

• Mechanical Focal Plane Shutters

  That's the subject of this page. Flash is limited by a Maximum Shutter Sync Speed, typically around 1/200 second maximum.   Start at the top of this page. 😊

• FP High Speed Sync Mode (HSS)

  These focal plane cameras often offer a FP High Speed Sync mode (HSS) which in fact does allow any shutter speed faster than the maximum sync speed. This is actually a matching feature in both the camera and the flash unit, which drastically changes the flash behavior, but the camera must select it, and trigger it slightly earlier (HSS is a "system", flash and camera, offered in top end models). HSS is NOT High Speed Flash, actually, the extreme opposite, being continuous light with zero speed stopping capability. HSS is just High Speed Sync, meaning it allows faster shutter speed to be used with a flash, but which is NOT high speed speedlight flash.

  Auto FP mode is Nikons menu name to enable HSS mode. HSS is not actually the same thing as "flash", but HSS mode does offer one way to increase shutter speed with flash in bright sun.

  HSS flash mode is a big subject, continued on next page.